Bellator 73's Travis Wiuff sees elusive title shot within reach

If you’re feeling generous, you might call Travis Wiuff a well-traveled professional fighter. Otherwise, you might call the 34-year-old light heavyweight a journeyman.

Until recently, he might have agreed with you. Not anymore. Eleven years into his pro career and with a staggering 83 fights to his credit, Wiuff seems to have found a second wind with Bellator Fighting Championships. After four consecutive wins for the MMA organization, he now finds himself in the finals of the 2012 light heavyweight tournament and one win away from a shot at the title he says will justify how he’s spent the bulk of his adult life.

“I need to get this belt to make the past 11 years feel like they were worthwhile,” Wiuff told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “If I were to happen to lose and wasn’t able to get the title, I couldn’t even call it a career, what I’ve been doing. I’d have to say the past 11 years have been a waste.”

It wouldn’t be due to a lack of effort. Since Wiuff made his pro debut in 2001, his fighting career has taken him all over the world, from Las Vegas to Tokyo to the edge of the Amazon. The Minnesota native on Friday will be in Tunica, Miss., for the tournament final against Slovakian fighter Attila Vegh (24-7-2 MMA, 3-0 BFC) in the headliner of Bellator 73 (8 p.m. ET, MTV2).

If Wiuff (68-14 MMA, 4-0 BFC) wins, he wins the tournament, which would earn him a rematch with Bellator 205-pound champion Christian M’Pumbu, who Wiuff defeated by decision in a non-title bout 10 months ago.

“I don’t think there’s a lot of things that he can change,” Wiuff said of M’Pumbu. “I’ve been wrestling since I was 5. I still do a ton of wrestling. He doesn’t have that background, and I don’t think he can change a whole lot about that that’s going to make a difference.”

It’s not the first time Wiuff has come within striking distance of a title. In high school, he suffered an injury that kept him from competing for a championship title after being ranked the No. 1 wrestler in the state.

“It was the same in junior college,” he said. “All I wanted to do was be a national champion, and I took second in 1999. I look at those two instances as failures. If I don’t become Bellator champion, I’d look at the last 11 years as a failure.”

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is probably the greatest female fighter on the planet, which is a tremendous feat. So why are we seemingly so obsessed with arguing about whether she could beat up men?